A Boston ad agency kicked off a national cancer-fundraising movement after one of its employees was diagnosed with stage-four squamous cell carcinoma. The experience highlighted the impact that its employees could have when they put their strengths as advertisers and storytellers to work (and went bald for a day).

In this excerpt from the new book "The Accidental Creative," author Todd Henry explains how people's expectations from being compared to peers, or even to those that inspired them, can limit the creativity in their work.

Tim Murray has a daunting job. As creative director of the Creative Vision Group at Target, he oversees the work of 10 agencies, 4 digital partners, and 3 branding studios. And those are the external contributors. Internally, Target, a Fortune 30 company with a market cap of $34.6 billion , has more than 1,200 people working in the marketing department alone.

In the December/January issue, Fast Company magazine takes an in-depth look at the tumultuous state of advertising on the eve of the biggest creative revolution the industry has witnessed in decades. As a companion piece, we asked three agencies — BBDO, Factory Design Labs, and Victors & Spoils — to visualize the business today and what they foresee. Their contributions indicate an optimistic, if wryly cautious, view of the future. Have a look:

The division of left brain / right brain in marketing, sales and advertising is dead.

Clients no longer appreciate, nor respect, the inability of agencies to follow traditional business practices, and be beholden unto "the creative process" - which means the agency will deliver the goods when they're good and ready.

I didn’t know what I wanted to do for a living until I was almost
thirty. I knew what I didn’t want to do: the same repetitive tasks day
after day, anything that involved lots of numbers, and in a place where
I didn’t learn new things.

For me, the answer was marketing. But I can’t help thinking about
the college student unsure of how to get paid for their odd smattering
of talents.

In his amazing work, Orbiting The Giant Hairball, former Hallmark Creative Director Gordon MacKenzie likens a large organization to...well...a hairball. He says that every new bureaucratic rule or organizational system adds one hair to the hairball until it’s all a giant, messy and impossible-to-navigate mess.